


Editions of you

by GreenPhoenix



Category: Oz (TV)
Genre: Clones, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-19
Updated: 2015-04-19
Packaged: 2018-03-24 18:17:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3778933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreenPhoenix/pseuds/GreenPhoenix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU: Chris has lost Toby, and decides to clone him. Does it work and do<br/>clones have souls? It's set post-series, with Toby falling instead of Chris. Also a little bit alternative reality as regards the technology.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Editions of you

**Author's Note:**

  * For [drsquidlove](https://archiveofourown.org/users/drsquidlove/gifts).



”What do you want him to look like?” asked the man.  
“Like the last two,” said the hawk-faced man and sighed. He had a type.  
“You want to use the same set of memories for him?” said the man.  
“Yes,” said Chris Keller. “With a few minor tweaks.”  
“We can tweak all you like,” smiled the man. “We aim to please.”  
“Good. I hope this one works out. How are the other two?”  
“Fine,” said the man. “They do just fine. “

*  
Chris Keller had lost Toby after his suicide in Oz. It happened two years ago, and he hadn’t been able to sleep after that. He knew that the Protean Corporation’s clones could help. The existence of clones wasn’t common knowledge, but Chris had his connections that kept him informed. Even if one of them was a bit mad at him for killing Ronnie Barlog. Money solved that though.  
The clones were barely legal, but he didn’t much care. He had his savings from various con jobs, and the Beecher family supplied the rest. The Corporation had supplied a cover story that explained how it was possible that Tobias Beecher was no longer dead.  
Holly was doing badly in school and needed her dad; a version of him that would reason with her would be good.  
Keller hoped this one would be perfect.  
*  
He looked like Toby of course. Smelled like him too. The lobby of the building seemed brighter already.  
Keller looked at his reborn lover, and embraced him.  
“Chris..” he said, his voice sounding like Keller wanted it to, a faint pleading note creeping in.  
Keller relaxed his grip a little; he didn’t want to hurt Toby.  
“You remember me?” he asked.  
“Yes, you are my lover, Chris Keller. We met in Oswald and you took care of me.”  
“That’s right,” said Chris. Mostly.  
“Where do we go now?”  
“Home,” said Chris. “They’re waiting.”

*  
“Dad?” said the blonde girl. “You’re..you’re ..”  
Toby saw her and it sparked memories of Holly laughing, opening her tiny arms to him. Distantly he remembered her mother carrying her to bed after a nightmare.  
“You’re you,” said Holly.  
“Yes,” he agreed.  
“That’s all that matters. Grandmother will be pleased.”  
“And Harry?”  
“He’ll deal,” said Holly coldly.  
Harry had no real memories of his father, and he was too young to face this just yet.  
He let Holly lead him into a large room that was furnished expensively.  
He recalled Victoria, his mother with her elegant ways and soft hands.  
“Toby,” she said. “It’s uncanny.”  
“Yes,” he said.  
“Harry’s with Gen’s folks. Maybe he can see you later. You’re not like the others.”  
Toby nodded.  
He didn’t want to unsettle a little boy for anything.  
“Chris,” said Victoria. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”  
“I do. We’ve discussed this before. At length.”  
Victoria sighed. She realized the discussion would be best held in private.  
“Dad’s finally back,” said Holly. “Nothing else matters. I missed him and I won’t do without him again.”  
“Thank you,” said Toby. He hoped he wouldn’t let her down.  
He was living the life his template had denied himself for some foolish reason.  
He’d be happy. He had to be.  
*  
They ate dinner very quietly. There was much to say, but the words that came out were mostly pleasant formalities .Victoria looked at him curiously, nervously fiddling with her fork. Holly didn’t let Toby out of her sight, and Chris took every opportunity of touching him, brushing his hand with strong fingers, caressing his thigh under the table or leaning in to hear every word.  
He felt Chris’ love, and realized the extent of his obsession, and it scared him.  
But it excited him too.  
Holly’s love was warm and comforting, and the depth of her need seemed endless.  
So did Chris’ for that matter.  
These people had lost the real Toby, and now they wanted him to fill the void somehow.  
So did he.  
He wouldn’t let them down.

*  
He went to his and Chris’ bedroom where they never lived before. It wasn’t a glass-walled pod it had seemingly endlessly space. You could drown in the bed.  
“We’ll go slow,” said Chris and his eyes devoured his latest Toby.  
Toby swallowed at the intensity of that blue gaze.  
“It’s okay,” he said. He remembered being with others, but they didn’t really love him. It was just things he’d done to annoy Chris, or get back at him.  
In jail you took whatever distractions you could get, he supposed.  
“Kiss me,” said Chris, and sparked a million memories, of past kisses, long and deep, hard and slow.  
“Yes,” he said and Chris kissed him softly, worshipping him.  
The strong arms around him made him feel calm. It would be so easy to drown in Chris’ warmth, to bask in the glow of his neediness.  
So Toby did. He went where the memories led him.  
Where they fabricated or real? Who really cared, they were all he had to go on.  
The soul of Tobias Beecher resided in him because the indomitable will of Chris Keller wished it so. He knew something about Keller’s willpower.  
He was Eurydice brought back by an Orpheus who didn’t look back.  
Keller’s arms surrounded him, and he lay down to sleep.  
Only that for now.  
Keller stroked his hair, and whispered soft words.  
“Love you,” Chris said.  
“Love you too,” he echoed as he drifted off to sleep, securely wrapped in strong arms.

*  
Toby awoke, still tangled in Chris’ arms, and a little stiff, in more ways than one. So that part of him worked.  
It felt good, so he kissed him softly.  
“I like you,” said Chris.  
“I know. So much you can’t ever let go,” he said with a sadness he had no idea he possessed.  
“That’s right,” said Chris. “Holly needs her dad too.”  
“Where’s Angus? “  
“Oh he’s away on business. You’ll see him soon.”  
“Good. Let’s go and have breakfast. When do I start work?”  
“Can’t you stay home and blow me all day?”  
“On weekends, I’ll happily do that. I need to have a purpose.”  
“So satisfying me’s not purpose enough?” pouted Keller.  
Toby laughed and kissed him again.  
*  
“Dad,” said Holly. “You’re not like the first one.”  
“Oh. Why not?” asked Toby.  
“He was too nice. I could fool him easily.”  
“About what, honey?”  
“Staying out late and stuff.”  
“We’ll talk about “stuff” later,” said Toby.  
Holly smiled.  
*  
Keller remembered his first Toby. He looked like Toby, but he was too much of a pushover.  
He let Chris walk all over him, and Chris wanted to kill him.  
But he couldn’t do that to someone with Toby’s face.  
He let the Proteans mindwipe him and relocate him elsewhere with new memories.  
He didn’t care where that one went really. At times he let his mind drift to someone with Toby’s face with another man or woman and it drove him mad. Merely thinking of Toby-one giving some lucky guy a blowjob raised his temperature to insane degrees.  
The second attempt was too crazy and took drugs and slutted around in biker bars.  
He didn’t take him to met Holly, but he ruined a dinner for Angus and his wife.  
Chris hit him hard for that, and sent him right back.  
He didn’t want his Toby too crazed or too slutty.  
This one showed promise, had a little bit of that Beecher wildness, but not too much.  
Chris had carefully constructed his memories this time.  
He’d taken away his attraction for people other than him.  
He let him retain memories of his dead wife, but fuzzed the ones of old girlfriends and wiped Katherine McClain from his mind completely.  
It seemed odd to play god, but what choice had the dead Toby given him?  
He’d abandoned Chris and his kids, much like Gen had once with her suicide.  
That wasn’t fair at all.  
The world owed him a second chance.  
*  
Toby rubbed his head. So he had a predecessor?  
Did he go back to the toy store if he displeased Keller? He didn’t like that idea one bit.  
He saw a pretty young woman but felt nothing for her, no stirrings of heterosexual desire at all. All his thoughts of that kind were of Chris now.  
He had kids with Gen, and one he had to bury, so at one time he must have loved her.  
It still hurt.  
There were things he couldn’t recall.  
Chris must have suppressed some things for his own good.  
He was a facsimile of someone dead, and he supposed his memories were not his own.  
But they were all he had; so he clung to them and his family’s need for him.  
*  
At night he crept into the bed and decided to have try sex for real.  
He was a virgin despite having plenty of memories of sex with Chris.  
He needed something tangible.  
Chris seemed pleased and very gratefully surrendered to his blowjob.  
The sighs and moans and smell of real skin were pleasing. He had no trouble doing this, going on instinct as well as memory. The real Toby’s memories..no matter now..he was Toby for all intents and purposes.  
After that Chris’ took him carefully, and he seemed to turn to fire.  
Sense-memory flared at the strong, possessing hands grabbing him, taking him over.  
Chris’ mouth on him felt good, he felt warm and alive.  
The ascent was strong, and his orgasm brought him closer to Chris.  
“Love you,” he said and felt it in every fiber of his being. “Keep me,” he added.  
“I will, Toby, I promise,” said Chris and his eyes were moist.  
*  
“Keep me,” said Toby and Chris decided to do that.  
He was wary of trying out the others, and the process was costly.  
The cloned Toby was just as good a he’d always been.  
He fucked the first one, and it had felt too safe.  
The second one was great in the sack, but not good for much else.  
Holly needed someone more stable.  
The latest one was wild enough to excite in bed, and he gave blowjobs like the real one did. Toby-three was good company, and was less haunted by his past, since Chris had carefully removed some of his own and Toby’s worst sins from his memory.  
Chris couldn’t ask for more.  
*  
Victoria sighed.  
“We’ll keep him,” said Chris.  
“I hope so,” she said. “I like him better than the others. We can take him to dinners unlike the crazy one. Angus is still cleaning his carpets after that one. This one’s nice.”  
“Toby wasn’t nice.”  
“To me, he was.”  
“I knew him in Oz.”  
“Don’t tell me. I can imagine.”  
“No you can’t, but I’ll spare you. I took away this one’s memories of some things that Vern did to him.”  
“And things you did to him?”  
“Yeah.”  
“How convenient. But what about Gary’s death?”  
“He remembers it, but not the thing about the hand.”  
“Maybe it’s for the best. I wish I could erase Holly’s memories of the kidnapping.”  
“Maybe one day we can,” said Chris ruefully.  
“Perhaps,” said Victoria sadly and fiddled with her pearls.  
*  
Toby got through his day while he thought of Holly and some trouble she had with a classmate.  
The girl was a stuck up bitch who teased Holly.  
Toby would tell her how to fight back without defecating on the girl.  
He recalled his takedown of Vern, but not anything about being pragged.  
Just as well, even though there was a swastika on his ass. Chris had insisted on it being there he supposed. Just one more detail to make him more like the real one.  
He needed to talk to Holly.  
*  
“I hate her. She’s mean,” pouted Holly.  
“What does she do?” asked Toby.  
“Do? Nothing. She just looks at me like I’m a freak.”  
“You are daddy’s princess.”  
“Dad I’m like twelve. “  
“You’ll always be my princess.”  
“Oh, whatever. Nina’s a real mean girl, and she’s pretty and popular.”  
“You’re pretty and smart.”  
“Yeah, yeah.”  
“Holly. It’s true. You always will be.”  
“You’ll stay right?” she asked nervously, her bravado crumbling a little in front of someone she accepted as her dad.  
“Yes. I promise.” He shouldn’t promise her something he couldn’t keep, but what could he do?  
“Good. Chris likes you best too.”  
That was good.  
“Let’s make pancakes.”  
“Yay food,” said Holly with a faint note of sarcasm, but she still smiled.

*  
“Are you happy with him?” asked the man, looking a bit anxious. He recalled the failures.  
“Yes, I’m keeping him,” said Chris.  
“Good. I always like a satisfied customer.”  
“He’ll not change will he?”  
“People change, but not more than that. He is what you made him.”  
“He’ll live as long as me?”  
“Yes. He’ll age and grow old like you.”  
“He won’t love anyone else?”  
“You made sure he won’t. Sometimes clones escape the programming, but yours was strong.”  
“The original one loved me.”  
“He broke up with you.”  
“He would have loved me again,” said Chris with complete surety.  
“You can be very persuasive,” admitted the man.  
“I know. I made him to love me and he does. He’ll be good for the kids too.”  
“You’re altruistic.”  
“Yep, regular Samaritan,” said Chris.  
*  
Toby slept peacefully next to him, his lover snatched from the jaws of death.  
It was his fate to be with Toby, now and always.  
Toby had gone down on him, and he’d let Toby fuck him.  
Toby gave in to his wild side, and it was beyond good.  
Chris had missed the wildcat sex, even though any kind of sex with any version of Toby was good. He had sampled it in enough varieties to know no one else would ever do.  
*  
Toby looked at Chris sleeping peacefully.  
He’d let Toby top him and it felt so good to be dominant for once.  
Toby rose and walked to the kitchen.  
He could sense Holly sleeping safely in her room.  
He didn’t belong here really, but he felt at home.  
He was only a clone, but he felt like he had a soul.  
There were gaps in his memories, and no doubt Chris made them.  
To protect him, or make him more docile?  
Did it matter?  
What was he if he wasn’t what Chris made him?  
He had made him easier to love, and taken away some sorrows.  
Chris was his dark god, and he was a willing acolyte. So it had been from the beginning and so it was now.  
He would stay, because the first Beecher had not done so.  
Toby sighed and sensed Chris behind him.  
“You okay?” asked Chris.  
“Yes. Just thinking.”  
“I know, you always are. Come back to bed.”  
He nodded, and did.  
He had doubts, but so he would if he’d been born by Victoria, and not created in a lab.  
He was a wooden puppet turned real, waiting for his master to react to his changing nature.  
He’d learn to live with it.  
“Love you,” he said and his Orpheus smiled brightly. He was trapped by the sirensong of Chris’ desire and love, made real by this man’s intent to always be by his side. What was he if not another edition of Tobias Beecher, maybe a better one than any of the others.

**Author's Note:**

> This has its roots in my fascination for Frank Herbert’s Dune series. The cloning of Duncan Idaho, the Atreides’ servant and swordsman goes on for millennia, and the Gholas(clones in that verse) thoughts of how they relate to the first Duncan are fascinating, they all have his memories, and those of their predecessors.  
> The first Duncan-ghola speaks of feeling lost despite being with people he loves.  
> They are clearly both human and troubled by the weight of memories and people’s need for them. Hence, this.  
> Also I’ve always wanted to do a version of the “Orpheus and Eurydice” myth with two guys, and a happy-ish ending.  
> And thanks to dr squidlove for talking about clones and inspiring me even more with her “Someone like you” series.


End file.
